Geno Smith thinks Ryan Grubb’s new Seahawks system fits the ‘drop back’ him

Geno Smith recently went to Cabo.

The vacation had golf, sun, surf — and, actually, a Seahawks work purpose.

Seattle’s veteran quarterback and team captain had new backup Sam Howell plus about a dozen other teammates from the Seahawks offense on a getaway in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. They bonded.

“Sam, we’ve been hanging out playing (the card game) Booray, went to Cabo, did some golfing, developing our relationship,” Smith said of Howell, the 23-year-old QB who went 4-13 last season as the Washington Commanders starter.

The Seahawks let 2023 backup Drew Lock sign a one-year, $5 million contract with the New York Giants in free agency in March and traded two draft picks to Washington to acquire Howell.

Their trip down to Cabo on the southern tip of Baja California came after their Seahawks replaced popular coach Pete Carroll with 36-year-old first-time head man Mike Macdonald in January, and before organized team activities (OTAs) practices began this week.

“Not the whole offense, but about 15 of us (went to Mexico together),” Smith said.

The 33-year-old quarterback has had two Pro Bowl seasons in his football career since replacing traded Russell Wilson as Seattle’s starter.

But Smith’s golf game?

“Not good enough,” he said. “I keep working on it.”

Geno Smith in Ryan Grubb’s system

Back in Seattle now, Smith and Howell are like every other Seahawks offensive player — except rookie tight end Jack Westover.

They are learning new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and his entirely new offensive system the former Washington Huskies play caller is installing in the coach’s first NFL months with the Seahawks.

Westover played his last two college seasons in Grubb’s offense at UW, including in the national championship game in January.

Wednesday, in the second of 10 OTA practices and the first one open to the media, Smith at times struggled to find receivers open against Macdonald’s remade defense. Smith twice scrambled to buy more time to throw, only to hold the ball to the play’s end because no receiver came free.

Two other times, Smith threw passes that 2023 Pro Bowl nickel and cornerback Devon Witherspoon, playing only nickel in these OTAs so far, deflected away and almost intercepted.

Smith knew of Grubb from working out with Michael Penix Jr. before the Huskies quarterback’s final college season last summer, before Atlanta selected UW’s 2023 Heisman Trophy runner-up eighth in the NFL draft last month.

Smith’s initial assessment of Grubb the Seahawks offensive coordinator?

“Very impressed, man,” Smith said. “Obviously from the stuff he’s done in college, he has a great track record. And then just being a part of the system, being able to learn from him, the type of guy that he is, type of man that he is, type of coach that he is. I think there is going to be great things coming for us.”

In the first week of OTAs, players went the wrong way before the snap. They missed audibles. Everything, including the names of the formations and blocking calls in Grubb’s system, remains new.

“It’s a challenge right now. You know, we’re still installing,” Macdonald said. “We’re chasing execution.

“Again, it’s a process. It takes time,” the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator the last two seasons said. “And there is no magic wand you can wave and everyone gets along and there is all this mutual understanding about how we’re going to operate. We’re just like chasing the mutual understanding of what kind of football team we want to be.

“It’s this constant chase of what we want.”

Smith sounds all in on that chase to master Grubb’s offense.

“Coach Grubb is doing a great job being demanding, making sure guys are studying and on point and knowing their assignments, but also giving guys some grace,” Smith said. “It is a new system, new offense, and guys are going to mess some things up. That’s not necessarily a terrible thing. We can gain from that.

“So, Grubb is doing a great job. It’s our job to make the plays come alive and make it all look good.”

Smith completed 64.7% of his passes last season for 3,624 yards, 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions last season, his second and final one playing under Shane Waldron’s offense in Seattle. In 2022 under Waldron, Smith led the NFL by completing 69.8% of his throws. He set a Seahawks record with 4,282 yards passing in 2022, with 30 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, plus the first playoff start and Pro Bowl selection of his career two years ago.

Yet that career year of 2022 began with Waldron having Smith throw the shortest passes in the league in the first games of that season, under 4 yards per attempt.

Grubb was famous at Washington for having Penix routinely drop deep in the pocket and heave 40-plus-yard bombs to UW’s waves of NFL-caliber receivers. Penix led major college football in passing yards each of the last two seasons with Grubb’s UW offense.

Penix had average yards per completion of 12.8 and 13.5 the last two Huskies seasons.

Smith’s average yards per completion the last two seasons with Waldron’s Seahawks offense: 10.7 and 11.2.

“I feel like I’m a drop-back passer,” Smith said, “and I feel like this is a drop-back offense, an offense that’s going to spread the ball around, trust the quarterbacks to make the right decisions. That’s pre- and post-snap.

“I think that’s something that I’m really good at. Just want to make sure I’m doing the right things when it comes to that.”

Sam Howell’s first Seattle days

In stature and by jersey number, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Howell wearing Seahawks number 6 looked from afar like Baker Mayfield. Mayfield is the former Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma who starts for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Howell threw 21 touchdowns with a league-high 21 interceptions last season. He lost 13 of 17 games for the Commanders.

Last November inside Lumen Field, he was 29 for 44 passing for 312 yards with a career-high-tying three touchdowns and no interceptions. Smith, booed by home fans earlier in that game, had to rally the Seahawks past Howell and the Commanders for Seattle’s 29-26 win.

In the second OTA practice this week, Howell exclusively ran the second-team offense, as is the Seahawks’ plan for 2024. Both he and Smith have this year and next remaining on their contracts.

Howell overthrew Dee Eskridge on a long fly route to the right sideline in 11-on-11 drills Wednesday. On the next snap, Howell threw far behind Eskridge on a one-step throw, to a 5-yard slant route over the middle.

Smith welcomes Howell to his quarterbacks room. For now, they are the only two in it.

“Sam is a really, really talented young player. He played a lot of football to be that young. Did a lot of great things and showed a lot of great things on tape,” said Smith, who is nine years older than his backup.

He isn’t giving any hints of I’m the starter, Howell’s the backup.

“For me, the whole starter-backup thing, I don’t ever wrap my mind around that,” Smith said. “It’s about that group. The quarterback group has to be a collective unit. Whoever goes in the game has to have the support of the other guys.

“So for me, it’s as you about us learning and working together and pushing each other together. That can only provide us with an excellent chance to get better.”